


On Edge

by AyuOhseki



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Bittersweet Ending, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Flirting, Ice Skating, M/M, Persona 5 Spoilers, Phobias, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-15 22:40:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,797
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29443491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AyuOhseki/pseuds/AyuOhseki
Summary: “What’s wrong?” he murmured, resting his other hand on his shoulder. “Why are you so freaked out?”Akechi made a suspiciously sob-like sound, grabbed him, and clung fast. “Amamiya-kun…” he whispered. “Can I confide a secret in you?”“What?”“Actually, I’m terrified of skating.”Ren teaches Akechi how to skate.
Relationships: Akechi Goro/Amamiya Ren, Akechi Goro/Kurusu Akira, Akechi Goro/Persona 5 Protagonist
Comments: 4
Kudos: 81





	On Edge

**Author's Note:**

> i don't actually know how to skate, so i may have gotten some stuff wrong. i was inspired to write this after i first watched _yuri!!! on ice_ some years ago before _royal_ came out, so it's not _royal_ continuity. that said, it's not going to be incomprehensible if you've only played _p5r_ , either.
> 
> "why'd you wait so long to post it?" just never got around to it, i guess

Ren tightened his laces, glided out onto the ice, and entered heaven. It’d been a long time since he’d last skated, and the sheer joy of the cold breeze on his face as he built up speed blew away the nerves he’d felt before entering the rink. A broad grin bloomed on his face. He swept his feet until he raced along the massive indoor rink at a somewhat more appreciable fraction of his old top speed.

It was a shame that the others couldn’t come, but that was what happened when you invited your friends out last-minute. Maybe if he’d been willing to wait until the weekend, Ryuji or Ann or _someone_ would’ve been able to join him, but when he read the Meiji Jingu Ice Skating Rink was both incredibly accessible and only open until six on the weekdays, he had to go that instant. Even Morgana had passed, citing November as cold enough without plunging oneself into an ice pit and making it even colder, and hopped off to lurk around the city while he got the skating out of his system.

But that was fine too. As Ren twisted himself around with grace and arced around backwards, the surge of emotion it brought back to him was—well, it was something intimate, personal. As much as he loved his friends, he’d never really talked to them about his life before Tokyo. He’d barely talked to them about what had gotten him exiled to Tokyo in the first place. Maybe this was a moment better spent alone after all.

It’d been… god. Over half a year now since he’d last been on the rink. Not since before his arrest. He tensed, sped around to an empty spot of the rink, and _leape_ _d_ — _yes, nailed it!,_ he crowed internally as he aced the landing from a double axel, one leg arcing up behind him as he glided backwards on one foot, scarf whipping around his face. He’d only managed to land that one two-thirds of the time in the old days. Ren let himself laugh as he twirled his leg down and etched a fairy race on the ice with his blades. This was—yes, this was about two thirds of the way into his competition routine, the one he’d worked so hard to perfect. Nine months later, no music in his ears, and still his body remembered. He let his muscle memory lead the rest of the way, too, into a triple lutz—shit, nearly fell that time, touched the ice, he’d lose points for that one—but swung into a backwards glide with elegant footwork, everything backwards was his specialty, he’d always been the type to do things the wrong way around, navigating around the other skaters on the rink as if by radar, and an attempt at a triple axel—ahh, he only got two rotations on that one, maybe two and a half, would that’ve been enough to count?—but it was fine, he pirouetted into a back scratch, and he spun and spun and spun and the world spun around him until he snapped into a pose, a snowflake etched on the ice, his panting sending white clouds drifting up through the frigid air.

And of course the other skaters ignored him to do their own thing, that was normal. Except—except someone was clapping, and Ren just had to look and see if it was for him, and—

“Akechi?” he uttered, blinking at the young man behind a nearby entry gate.

And it _was_ Akechi, unmistakably. Same perfect teeth, same faux-affable smile, same elegant gloved hands, same run-your-hands-through silky hair, same deceptively slim figure, same stylish uniform (if with a long coat on top), same kind and calculating eyes. Ah, yes. His detective prince of lies. Ren could’ve sworn he joined the others in the chatroom chorus of having something else to do today, but he didn’t mind the surprise.

Weaving around a couple of passing skaters, Ren glided over to the latest addition to the Phantom Thieves’s nightly escapades and joined him by the gate. Once he was there, he glanced down at Akechi’s feet. Yup, and there was his briefcase, too. His stupid fucking briefcase, with its stupid fucking A stamped in a circle on the cover, as if its owner had to be absolutely certain that absolutely everyone knew to whom it belonged and by proxy who he was. When combined with his self-effacing “humility,” it was _so_ stupid it looped around to endearing. How could a single person be so obnoxious and so charming at the same time? That was the Akechi experience.

“That was stunning, Amamiya-kun,” Akechi said by way of greeting, which was actually quite sweet and would be sweeter if Ren could be sure he wasn’t trying to butter him up. “I don’t believe I’ve ever seen such skillful ice skating before.”

Ah. Yeah, definitely buttering up. Ren found he didn’t mind that either, though, as he shrugged and half-smiled. “I could do better. I’m out of practice.” A beat. “What’re you doing here? I thought you were busy.”

“Happily, I finished earlier than anticipated. Sometimes a job can take weeks, even months to complete; sometimes it’s just a matter of noticing something someone else hadn’t.”

“Being a detective must be _so hard_.”

“Ahaha. In any case, I happened to be in the area, so I thought I’d poke my head in.”

And Ren wondered if that was actually true and it really was a coincidence, or if Akechi was bullshitting him and had conspired to get him here without the team. He decided on the former. If Akechi wanted him alone, he could do better than a public goddamn skating rink.

“Come and join me, then,” Ren said.

Akechi’s eyes flew wide. “Pardon? --oh! Ahaha, please forgive me,” he replied, smiling and holding up a hand. “When I said I’d poke my head in, I meant for just a moment, and just to watch. I haven’t even paid the fee.”

“So do that. You can afford it, right?”

“Er… Well, yes, but it’s not a matter of affording it or not…”

Ren leaned his chin on one hand. What was Akechi being so cagey for? Did he want him to beg him to join him? That was kind of annoying. Not for the first time, he thought, _You’re just lucky you’re so pretty._ “This rink’s only open until six, and you’re already here. You can’t spare a couple of hours to skate with me?”

Akechi smiled. There was a certain wryness in his eyes as he did, and it made Ren smile back. “While the offer is tempting, I’m afraid I’m nowhere near your level. I don’t mind staying for a while longer, but I’d rather sit back and watch, if that’s all right by you.”

He laughed. “What, scared I’ll show you up?”

“Petrified,” he replied, laughing back.

“I’ll make sure to suck extra-hard so you can feel good about yourself,” he quipped. Half a second later, his brain caught up with his mouth.

Fortunately, if Akechi noticed the double entendre, he didn’t so much as bat an eyelash over it. “How generous of you. Really, though, I’d rather watch.”

“Keeping me under surveillance?”

“Something like that.”

“You’ll observe a lot more from on top of the ice.”

He laughed. “You really want me to join you, don’t you?”

“I can’t force you or whatever, but just sitting back and watching seems boring to me.” He half-smiled. “Don’t worry about ‘keeping up.’ I don’t need to do anything fancy. I just want to skate, and some company would be nice.”

“Ahaha… Even if it’s mine?”

“Why not yours?”

“I was under the impression you weren’t especially fond of me.”

“Couldn’t imagine why,” Ren deadpanned, thinking of the one time he’d straight-up told Akechi to get out of Leblanc. He’d been surprised when Akechi had laughed it off, though considering his claim that he was unwelcome wherever he went, maybe it was because he was used to having to. Either way, he’d taken it in such stride Ren had actually felt bad about it. He’d never gotten around to apologizing, though, and at this point it’d been so long ago he probably never would. “No, I only can’t stand you about half the time. The other half, I actually kind of like you.”

“Well! How flattering,” he joked. “And this is the latter half right now, then?”

“It could be, if you skated with me.”

A shadow of something crossed Akechi’s face like a falling star. Wistfulness, maybe. Or maybe resignation. Then he brushed his hair back (Ren admired for a moment the way it framed his handsome face) and chuckled. It sounded forced. “Ah, what a missed opportunity… As much as I really would love to accept your invitation, I can’t. As in, I literally can’t,” he added, perhaps seeing Ren’s furrowed brows. “I don’t know how to skate.”

Ren felt a vein bulge in his temple. This guy. _This_ _fucking_ _guy_. He swore, he was going to snare Akechi with his scarf and strangle him to death with it. Or no, since he was in no hurry to get another jail sentence, he might settle for grabbing him by the shoulders and _shaking_ him while yelling, _LEARN TO PEOPLE_. All that dancing around because he didn’t want to admit he didn’t know how to skate? How unnecessary could a human being be?!

But all he said was, “I’ll teach you.”

Akechi gawked at him. “You’ll what?”

Ren leaned over the rink gate and clasped him by the cheeks with both hands. “ _I’ll teach you_ , you ridiculous walnut raisin cluster.”

And when the surprise ebbed, Akechi laughed like he really did think that was funny. Ren smiled and just managed to stop himself from slipping his hands back, hooking them behind Akechi’s neck, and pulling him intimately close. When it wasn’t that rehearsed-for-TV thing that sometimes clawed at Ren’s soul, his laugh was so pleasant, so musical, it made his insides flutter like butterflies on a bush of hydrangeas. _God_ , he wanted to kiss him. God, he knew he never could.

“Are you licensed to teach?” Akechi asked then, which might have been ridiculous were it not for his teasing smile, as he removed Ren’s hands.

“Free lessons. You get what you pay for.”

“Ahahah. Well, you _are_ skilled, I’ll grant you that.” He turned his gaze out towards the ice, where skaters drifted by at varying speeds, and pulled a thoughtful frown. He might have held his chin too, completing the detective pose, if Ren’s hands weren’t still in his own . For a n odd moment, his stare reached out towards eternity, that middle-distance that never made it anywhere, resulting in a look Ren could only describe as _glazed_. The next moment, he huffed a breath of a laugh, half-smiling. “All right. Why not? How hard can it be if _you_ can do it?”

 _Fuck you too,_ Ren thought.

But Akechi was already stepping back, letting him go, and reaching for his briefcase. “I’ll be back in ten minutes. Please have fun until then.”

A dozen quips flashed through his mind. He leaned back, nodded, and said nothing instead. Once Akechi had gone to presumably pay the rink fee and rent a pair of skates, Ren glided for a circle or two around the rink. Its international standard size really was wonderful; even with the other skaters around, there’d be plenty of space for the two of them.

Humming to himself, he slipped back into backwards skating, letting his scarf billow in his wake. As needlessly complicated and irritating as that had all been, he was actually looking forward to getting him on the ice. Skating with someone who already knew what they were doing would also have been nice, but there was an appeal to getting to hold Akechi by the hand, by the waist, and coax him through the basics. In retrospect, that was probably why he’d been so difficult about it and had only accepted with a jab; learning something new involved a certain level of vulnerability. Playing the fool on occasion was one thing, but Akechi couldn’t very well allow _that_ when he was trying to con the team, now could he.

But accept he had, and Ren intended to make the most of it. Maybe he’d get to catch a glimpse of the real Goro Akechi in the process. Wouldn’t that be something.

Before long, Ren spotted him in the same spot as before, only this time without his briefcase and with a pair of skates, which he was currently lacing up. He broke off from his circuit to return to the gate and lean both elbows on it.

“Lookin’ good,” he said, half-smirking, hand on one cheek.

“And here I’ve only just finished lacing,” Akechi joked. He tied an expert knot, removed the rubber slipcovers from the blades, then slowly stood. While he wobbled a bit, he kept his balance. His grin was nigh triumphant and inordinately pleased. “There! That wasn’t hard at all.”

“Skating isn’t,” Ren said, shaking his head in wry affection. What a ludicrous human being. “Hard, I mean. It’s just balance.”

Akechi laughed and flipped his hair. “And who’s better at balance than either of us?” He held out his hand, grin glowing with confidence. “Well then, I’m in your care, Amamiya-kun. Please do be gentle.”

As he opened the gate, Ren accepted his hand, then—was it verve? Was it that aura of challenge? But some whim made him pull it to his lips. Maintaining direct eye as he kissed the backs of Akechi’s gloved fingers, he purred, “A little rough play won’t kill you, my prince.”

Akechi blessed him with a shocked stare for a split-second; then he burst out laughing. “Oh, dear! I’ll have you know I’m quite delicate at heart,” he countered, grinning, as he stepped close. “One wrong touch might shatter me.”

Ren, in return, full-on smirked. “That sounds like fun. I’d like to see who you are when your edges are sharp enough to shred souls.”

His eyes hooded. Whatever his internal dialogue, it definitely wasn’t what he said next: “Is it because of your own dark side that you assume everyone else must have one, too?”

Which was hilariously bullshit, but Ren only countered as he pulled him forward, “Isn’t life more interesting that way?”

Akechi set a foot on the ice, then the other; the next move he took, they promptly sailed backwards beneath him. Ren caught him with both arms as the momentum of his near-fall launched them into the rink and guided the two of them into the rest of the crowd with ease.

“Careful. It’s a _little_ slipperier than the concrete,” he warned, amused.

Akechi said nothing. Embarrassed, maybe; he kept his head down, forehead on Ren’s shoulder, face out of view, hands gripping his upper arms like his life depended on it. His legs were stiff, too; they weren’t so much skating together as Ren was towing him in his wake.

“Relax,” he added. “Let your knees bend. Have you ever gone regular skating before?”

Akechi’s hair flew as he shook his head.

“Roller blading?”

Head shake.

“Mmm… Well, anyway, keep yourself limber. When you move your feet, you want to ease your weight into each movement. If you keep yourself stiff like that, you’ll fall for real.”

His iron grip tightened into a vice grip. Maybe not the best advice. To his credit, he _did_ attempt to move his feet and bend his knees , but the y were so robotic he slipped again, locked up, and nearly dragged Ren down into a fall with him. Ren managed to win that particular tug-of-war, if barely, but now Akechi was crouched down and _still_ had a death grip on him.

Ren eased them into a stop, a little more difficult than usual with momentum for two. “C’mon, up you go. Akechi? Akechi. Akechi, you gotta stand up. No, don’t—don’t pull on me, you’ll drag us both— _Akechi_. Okay, you can lean on me a _little_ , but—okay, that works, now just—right, there we go, easy does it— _there_. Was that so hard?”

Akechi, whose forehead was glued back to his shoulder, panted. “Sh-shut up,” he rasped.

“Hmmm, I’m remembering something amusing,” Ren drawled. “Something along the lines of, ‘How hard can it be if _you_ can do it?’”

“ _Shut up_.”

His eyes narrowed. _That_ had a knife’s edge to it, like the detective would gut him if he could. Ren had wanted to see Akechi’s true colors. If he pushed a little harder, would he betray them like he intended on betraying the team?

To experiment, he peeled Akechi’s fingers from their vice grip on his coat, worming his own fingers into Akechi’s palms to coax him off. When he had their clasped hands between them, he squeezed, smiled—and then pushed off into a backwards glide.

“Maybe you’ll do better if you’ve got someone to chase, detective,” he said, half-joking, half-taunting, as he let his fingers slip out of Akechi’s.

He expected him to get angry and snap at him. He expected him to get stubborn and improve. He even expected him to wobble and flail comically as he struggled to stay upright.

He didn’t expect what actually happened, which was for Akechi to scrabble desperately at the air where his hands were as his head shot up, handsome features molded with primal fear, his eyes projecting a litany of _no no no no no no no_. His legs trembled like petals in a spring storm, balance threatening to crumble any second, and he stretched his fingertips out to grab hold of something, anything—but Ren was already out of reach. For a split-second, their eyes locked onto one another, Akechi’s terrified, Ren’s stunned.

“ _Don’t leave me!!_ ” he screamed.

Then his legs gave out, and he fell hard, hands-first, onto the ice.

Ren screeched to a halt. Then he launched himself forward to close the gap and stopped on a dime in front of Akechi. He was already struggling to get up, but at Ren’s approach, he let out a high-pitched, watery yelp, snatched his hands back, and rolled himself onto his knees so he could huddle his arms and head off of the ice. Skaters were staring as they passed by, so Ren made a shooing gesture with one hand as he knelt in front of his companion.

“What’s wrong?” he murmured, resting his other hand on his shoulder. “Why are you so freaked out?”

Akechi made a suspiciously sob-like sound, grabbed him, and clung fast. “Amamiya-kun…” he whispered. “Can I confide a secret in you?”

“What?”

“Actually, I’m terrified of skating.”

Ren opened his mouth; shut it. In hindsight, this was so blisteringly obvious that he felt like an absolute idiot and world-class tool for not realizing sooner. He ran through a mental checklist of what he could say ( _Why didn’t you tell me sooner?_ ; _Yeah, that’s obvious_ ; _You want to get off the ice?_ ) and picked the third. To his astonishment, Akechi shook his head. _Vehemently_ , even.

“Why not?” he wondered, baffled.

“Because I just humiliated myself in front of God and everyone and especially _you_ and if I get off the ice I’ll have to face all of that and I can’t, I can’t, I can’t,” he babbled, then sobbed.

Oh. Well. Okay, sure, that made sense. He guessed. “It’s okay,” he murmured, stroking his hair as soothingly as he could, slipping an arm around his back. “Shhh, shh. It’s okay. It’ll be okay. We’ll go over to the side so you can hold onto the railing, how does that work?”

Akechi made a high-pitched noise of distress in his throat and clung harder.

Ah, hell. Ren stared at the ceiling in thought, still stroking his hair. “If we don’t move, someone’s going to come over asking what we’re doing in everyone’s way,” he murmured. “I don’t really care if I’m a roadblock, but that seems like the kind of thing you’d rather avoid. Am I right?”

High-pitched distress melted into mid-pitched misery. Still, Akechi’s grip loosened just enough for Ren to ease off his knees. He cradled Akechi’s arms in his own and helped elevator him back to his feet; then he guided him over to the side of the rink with a few graceful footstrokes. Once there, Akechi anchored onto the railing, but he didn’t let go of Ren. He couldn’t manage to look him in the face, either; indeed, he went back to burying his face in Ren’s shoulder.

Ren didn’t mind. He stayed close and held him in silence until Akechi’s breath slowed and evened out some. When he judged that he’d collected himself enough, he murmured, “Can I ask you something?”

Weary as old bones, Akechi muttered, “What.”

“Well—first, let me apologize. I could tell you didn’t want to skate, but I kept pressuring you to do it anyway. I’m sorry, that was shitty of me.” He paused. “That said… if you’re scared of it, why’d you accept? You even seemed excited for a few.”

“Because it’s a stupid fear. Stupid, inane, and childish,” Akechi spat, digging his fingers into Ren’s coat. “But you made it look so easy. Beautiful, even. I thought if I had you teaching me, I could overcome it and close another ugly chapter of my life.”

“Ah.” Ren stilled his hand mid-stroke on the back of Akechi’s neck. “That’s really cool, actually. It takes a lot of guts to try to conquer your fears of your own volition.”

He stirred. While he didn’t lift his head from Ren’s shoulder, there was a certain lightening in his tone as he asked, “You think so?”

“Yeah. Props, man.”

That did the trick: he looked up. When their eyes met, Ren realized there were only a few inches between them, and he still had a hand around his neck, and Akechi was looking at him with an expression he’d never seen on him before. Something subtle, yet unguarded and yearning… It made him think that maybe _this_ was the real Goro Akechi he’d wanted to see. Ren gave serious thought to leaning in to complete the moment, but remembered he’d already gravely misread him once in the last several minutes. He eased back instead, pulling his hand away to cough discreetly into it. Akechi parted his lips, then pursed them, and stayed that way for a moment until he finally spoke.

“I—” He swallowed hard. “I appreciate the apology, Amamiya-kun. It’s not really your fault, though. I could have left anytime I wanted to. I just overestimated my ability to do…” He gestured broadly around them. “This.”

“Nah, I was the one who wasn’t taking no for an answer. That’s on me.”

Akechi paused. Then he breathed out a hint of a laugh. “You truly are a good person, aren’t you?”

He rubbed the back of his neck. “I mean… I try.” He paused. “Anyway, now that you’re calmed down, I’ll help get you to a gate so you can get off the ice and go home or whatever. I’m really sorry about this. If you want, I’ll pay you back the entry fee—”

“No.”

“Oh. Well that’s cool too, but it’s the least I can—”

“No, no,” Akechi interrupted again, “I mean I’m not leaving. That is… I still want you to teach me how to skate. Please.”

Ren stared. “Why?”

“The same reason as before,” he replied, pink rising in his cheeks. “I want to overcome this fear. At this point, you’ve already seen me make a fool of myself. I may as well go all in to make it worthwhile.”

All of a sudden, Ren _got_ Akechi. At least, he got a crucial part of who he was. There was something both admirable and frightening about someone whose fear response was to double down.

“Okay,” he said. “Can I ask something else, though? What’s so scary about skating to you?”

“…It’s ridiculous.”

“I promise I won’t laugh.”

A tiny smile came and went. He took a deep breath. “I’m scared of losing my balance and falling, and while I’m trying to pick myself up, someone skates by and cuts off my fingers or slashes my face and neck.”

Ren’s eyebrows rose.

“I told you it was ridiculous,” Akechi added defensively.

“That’s cool. When I was a kid, I was scared of the garbage disposal,” Ren said. “I thought there was a monster living inside, and if I got too close, it’d eat my face.”

He burst out laughing. “Are you serious?”

He grinned. “I’m always serious. Except for when I’m not.”

“You’re obnoxious,” Akechi replied, but he smiled as he said it.

“Funny. I think the same thing about you all the time.” Ren held out his hand, smiling back. “Let’s give this another go, then.”

For a second, Akechi held his breath; then he accepted Ren’s hand. “Okay.”

The rest of the afternoon went, for all they were on the ice, swimmingly well. Akechi wasn’t a _great_ skater, but he could at least more or less keep his balance by the time they finished his lessons. Before they knew it, an announcement warning that the skating rink would soon close played, and they had to head back to the stands.

“That was a terrible experience,” Akechi complained as he untied his skates.

Ren snorted and chuckled. “You think so? I thought it was pretty nice.”

“I’m simply glad it’s over.”

“Does that mean you don’t want any more lessons?”

“Hardly. I expect to see you here promptly after school tomorrow.”

Ren raised an eyebrow. “Seriously?”

“No, I’m just kidding.” Akechi smiled. “My schedule’s already booked.”

He snorted and bumped a shoulder into him. Akechi bumped him back. It was nice, but not something to get carried away with. “D’you feel less scared of skating now?”

His good humor faded into a ghost of itself. “I’m not sure. Perhaps I need to keep at it for a while longer to see results.”

Ren nodded slowly. It wasn’t just about what’d happen after Akechi fell, he’d observed. Slipping itself consistently triggered his fear response, whether he fell or not. He wondered if what actually frightened Akechi was that moment when he lost all control and everything came tumbling down.

Then he wondered if he was reading too much into it.

“If you _do_ want to come skating with me again, I’m up for it,” he said instead. “Just give me a buzz to let me know when you’re free.”

“Hmm… well…” Akechi flipped his hair and smiled one of his more charming smiles. “Perhaps this Sunday, at 10 AM?”

Ren couldn’t help but smile back. “Are you asking me out on a date?”

“And if I am?”

Something caught in Ren’s throat. Akechi’s smile remained light, but the look in his eyes was expectant. Maybe even predatory. Did he really mean it? Or was he playing games?

“Just kidding,” he added. “Ahaha, you should have seen the look on your face, Amamiya-kun!”

God dammit. Ren wanted to punch him for that. Maybe on the lips, with his lips. Fucking Akechi.

“This Sunday I’ve got plans,” he thus said. Just to tweak his nose a bit.

Akechi’s smug little smile abated just a bit. “Oh, I see.”

“When else are you open?”

He looked away. “I’m not sure. There isn’t much time before we need to, ah, settle up at the casino, as it were.”

“Oh.” Ren’s mood dimmed too. “Right.”

“But I’ll let you know,” he continued. “We’ll see what happens. Hm?”

For a moment, he said nothing. Then he nodded once. “Sure.”

Each of them finished changing into their regular shoes. Akechi grabbed his briefcase and stood up first. “Well then, I’ll head out first. Thank you for taking the time to teach me. It was… time well spent.”

Ren shot up as he turned away and grabbed him by the crook of the elbow. “Akechi. I had a good time, too.”

Akechi turned back to stare at him.

Quietly, he added, “I really do want to skate with you again.”

His chestnut eyes flickered as he averted them. After an eternity, he plastered on a smile. “If fate allows.”

Ren let his hand slip from Akechi’s arm. “Oh.”

He nodded, expression still carefully agreeable. “I’ll see you later, Amamiya-kun. Good night.”

He watched him go, with his perfect posture and his celebrity glitz and his walls and masks now firmly locked back in place, without responding. As his back vanished into the throng, Ren wondered if he’d ever get to catch another glimpse of Akechi’s true self again.


End file.
